This disclosure relates to beverage systems and, more particularly, to a beverage apparatus for preparing, dispensing, monitoring, controlling and, if desired, flavoring beverages.
Over the past 10 years, the coffee and beverage industry has experienced an evolution in connection with retail sales of fresh coffee. In particular, there is now a significant customer demand for individual servings of fresh coffee at, among other places, coffee shops, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants. Associated with the increase in demand for retail purchases of individual servings of fresh coffee are increases in demand for flavored coffee and for different types of flavored coffee as well as a variety of other beverages, such as teas, cocoas, etc.
As a result of these significant changes in the coffee and beverage industry, the service market has changed drastically over the past 10 years. Coffee shops in which consumers can walk in and purchase a fresh cup of coffee have substantially increased in number. Convenience food stores, fast food restaurants and other retailers now devote substantial floor space to serving customer demand. Moreover, these changes place increasing demands on employees of retail outlets to monitor the coffee brewing and beverage preparation equipment to ensure that there is a constant supply of fresh coffee available to consumers and in many cases to also ensure that there is a sufficient number of different flavors of fresh coffee available.
These changes in the coffee service industry have also created an increased need for efficiency in serving the consuming public. To be competitive in this expanding marketplace, efficiency in the brewing, storage, and dispensing of coffee is increasingly important. In particular, there is now a premium on being able to serve in an efficient manner the large demand for not only fresh coffee but also different flavors of coffee, in light of the substantial retail space needed for the coffee brewing and dispensing equipment and the continuous responsibilities in administering the brewing and dispensing process.